WASHINGTON, March 19: The United States has granted visas to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and 38 aides and bodyguards so he can address the UN Security Council when it votes on a new sanctions resolution to curb his country's nuclear programme, a senior US official said on Monday.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the visas, requested by Iran last week, covered 13 officials and diplomats and 26 security agents.
Iran made an additional request on Monday for visas for 33 air crew and those were also expected to be granted, he said.
“We are not going to be in any way hindering the ability of President Ahmadinejad to appear before the Security Council,” he said.
Asked if United States authorities had any plans to question Ahmadinejad about US accusations that his government has provided weapons used to kill US soldiers in Iraq, McCormack said he was not aware of any such planned action.
Washington and Tehran have not had direct diplomatic ties since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.
McCormack reiterated United States calls for the Iranian president to use his speech to the Security Council to accept United Nations demands to suspend Iran's uranium enrichment programme and enter into negotiations with the major UN powers.
“It would be an important moment for President Ahmadinejad in his address to the Security Council to take the opportunity to say, ‘We are going to negotiate, we do not seek confrontation, we seek dialogue’, and to accept the offer of negotiations that has been put forth,” McCormack said.
“We'll see whether or not he wants to go down the pathway of confrontation or the pathway of dialogue,” he said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, discussed preparations for the new UN sanctions vote with her counterparts from the European Union and Germany.
“We emphasised again that while the Security Council, we hope, will act very soon, we still hope that there are those in Iran who wish to take advantage of the offer to negotiate that has been put before the Iranian government,” Ms Rice said after those talks.
Tehran has given no sign of yielding in its refusal of UN demands that it suspend a uranium reprocessing program the West fears is aimed at producing nuclear weapons but which Iran insists is for peaceful energy purposes only.
The 15-member Security Council is due to meet Wednesday to review a draft sanctions resolution against Iran agreed last week by the body's five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany.
A vote on the draft, which toughened sanctions already adopted by the council in December, was likely to follow a few days later, diplomats at the world body said.
The new draft would bar Iran from exporting arms and restrict the sale or transfer to Tehran of equipment including battle tanks, combat aircraft, attack helicopters and missiles.
It calls for a voluntary travel ban on additional officials involved in Iran's “proliferation-sensitive” nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
It also urges voluntary restrictions on “new commitments for grants, financial assistance and concessional loans to Iran” as well as extending an assets freeze to additional entities and individuals linked to Iran's nuclear and missile programs.
—AFP